Uncas II

“ To the westward, beyond the Rhode Island border, lived Uncas, the enemy of Miantonomoh. His domain extended to the river Thames, and he had been a chief of the Pequots, who revolted in 1634 against the Sachem Sassacus and joined the Mohicans, being chosen their chief sachem. He was friendly to the colonists, and by sagacious alliances with them increased the power of his tribe, which had previously been in a relatively subordinate position. He helped defeat the Pequots, and became so strong that he was described as the "most powerful and prosperous prince in New England." ”

“ Still the general use of the Canadian term Brave, on our Indian border, may give it some poetic claims to introduction into our vernacular, burthened as it already is with more objectionable Americanisms.
If Uncas was the patron of Connecticut, Miontonimo, with his family of the Narragansett chiefdom, was equally so of Rhode Island. And it is from this obvious fact, probably, in part, that we find the historical notices of him, from the last quarter, decidedly more favorable to his general character than those emanating from the land of his enemy and his conqueror, Uncas. ”

“ In the year 1643, Miantonimoh invaded the Mohegans with nine hundred of his warriors; Uncas met him at the head of five hundred of his men, on a large plain; both prepared for action, and advanced within bow-shot. Before the conflict commenced, Uncas advanced singly, and thus addressed his antagonist: "You have a number of men with you, and so have I with me. It is a pity that such brave warriors should be killed in a private quarrel between us. Come like a man, as you profess to be, and let us fight it out. If you kill me, my men shall be yours; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine." ”

“ The purest romance of the tale lies in Uncas, the forest's youngest son, gallant, skilful, courteous, a lover for whom there is no hope, the last of the proud race of the Mohicans. That Uncas was idealized Cooper then and always freely admitted; Homer, he suggested, had his heroes. And it is clear that upon Uncas were bestowed the standard virtues which the philosophers of the age had taught the world to find in a state of nature. Still, after a century many can smile upon the state of nature who are yet able to find in Uncas the perennial appeal of youth cut off in the flower. ”

“ Uncas went to Hartford, received his prisoner, and conducted him to the spot where he had been captured. Hardly had the party arrived, when a Mohegan, directly behind Miantonomah, killed him with a single blow of his tomahawk.
It is only fair to add that historians have never agreed as to the real character of Uncas and Miantonomah. ”

“ After the death of Uncas, which happened about the year 1680, his tribe gradually dwindled away, under their continual wars with the whites, and the other Indians, and their own evil passions, until the feeble remnant of a once powerful people was compelled to abandon their ancient hunting-grounds, and flee for protection to their grandfather, the Delawares, now almost as wretched and powerless as themselves; some even joined their old enemies, the Six Nations, by whom they were generously adopted into that warlike confederacy. ”

“ Eleven warriors lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows have melted, and none will tell where to find them when the tongue of Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the sharpest knife, and whirl the swiftest tomahawk, for their bitterest enemy is in their hands. Uncas, topmost branch of a noble trunk, call on the cowards to hasten, or their hearts will soften, and they will change to women!”
“They look among the fishes for their dead!” ”

“ He, Uncas, is absorbed in the problem before him and has not deigned to look off across the fields to where the neighbor boy has gone crying to his mother. “Le Renard Subtil” will be heard from again but for [Pg 15] the present is forgotten. The foot must be advanced just so. The arm must be drawn back just so. When one hurls the hatchet the body must be swung forward just so. An absolute silence must be maintained. The skulking Huron who has dared come into our hunting grounds is unaware of the presence of the young Uncas. Is he, Uncas, not one whose feet leave no traces in the morning dew? ”

“ They decided that the rules of war permitted, and the safety of Uncas required, the death of Miantonomo. They were careful, however, not to permit his execution within their jurisdiction. The colonies were responsible for the death of this chief. Uncas was nominally their ally, but really their subject. From first to last he did their bidding with a spirit so craven and a manner so treacherous that he was neither trusted nor respected by them. But the English in their death-warrant voluntarily offered to protect Uncas from the consequences of Miantonomo's death. ”

“ The rise of Uncas and Connecticut thus began at one era; and as the alliance was founded on mutual interest and safety, it only grew stronger with time. A man of less force of character or natural sagacity than Uncas, would have vacillated when he saw the colonists becoming more powerful and himself more weak as years rolled on, and would have been seduced to enter into alliances for arresting the white man’s power, as other native chiefs had done. ”

“ The criminal refused to express regret, and insisted that Uncas [72] should fight him. Uncas accepted the challenge and invaded the territory of the other to whom he gave a severe defeat. There seems little doubt that Miantonomah prompted both of these attempts at assassination. The baffled sachem was an ally, and the Narragansett set on foot a campaign against Uncas, hoping to strike his blow before the Mohegan could prepare for it. The spies of Uncas warned him of his danger, and he hurriedly gathered several hundred warriors to meet the invaders that were twice as numerous. ”

“ The orphan youths had then become all-in-all to each other, and their mutual attachment had excited the respect and admiration of the whole village, of which, at his father's death, Uncas became the leading man. Had he lived his brother would have assisted him in the government and direction of that portion of the tribe but when he fell before the desolating pestilence, Jyanough was too young and inexperienced to be made Sachem, and the title was conferred on a warrior who was deemed more capable of supporting the dignity of the community. ”

“ The first grand chief, or sachem, of the Mohicans known to the English, was called Uncas: he was a crafty and ambitious chieftain, brave and cunning in war, and cruel to his conquered enemies. He was always a firm friend to the English, probably because he saw that it was for his interest to be so; for he was generally at war with the Six Nations on the north, and the Narragansets, a numerous warlike people on the east, who inhabited the country now called the state of Rhode Island. ”

“ Not long before, it seems that Uncas—the last man whose evidence should have been noticed at all—had called on Governor Haynes at Hartford, and informed him of Ninigret's visit to the Dutch; as also that he had made a league with them, bought up a large quantity of ammunition, and negotiated with the New York Indians for a war against Uncas and the English. Furthermore, it was said that Ninigret had sent to a neighboring Sachem, to procure a man skillful in poisoning, and had promised him one hundred fathoms of Wampum in return. ”

“ Only two years previous, at the commencement of Philip's war it was reported to governor Winslow of Plymouth, that the Mohegan Sachem had sent twenty men to join his Pokanoket brother, with a message that if Philip would send him six English heads, all the Indians in his territories would go for him. [FN-1] Uncas is last heard of in 1680, when he must have been a very old man, though still likely, we are told, to survive all his enemies. ”

“ It was clear to Hawk-eye that they still lived, and had been carried off by Magua. With untiring energy he at once set off to try and discover the trail. It was Uncas, who, finding a portion of Cora's skirt caught on a bush, first opened up the line of pursuit. He it was, too, who read the track of Magua's feet on the ground--the unmistakable straddling toe of the drinking savage. An ornament dropped by Alice, and the large footprints of the singing-master, laid bare to the trained intelligence of the Indian scout everything that had happened. ”

“ As they go homeward in the gathering darkness and come to the house, where lives “Le Renard Subtil,” to which he has gone crying but a few hours before, an idea comes to him. Uncas creeps in the darkness, halfway between the house and the picket fence in front and, balancing the hatchet in his hand, hurls it proudly. Well for the neighbor’s family that no one came to the door at that moment for Uncas’ long afternoon of practicing has got results. The hatchet flies through the air and sinks itself fairly and deeply into the door panel as Uncas and Hawkeye run away home. ”

“ Concessions of this nature it was—which no other Indian Sachem of equal power ever submitted to—that went farther than anything else to keep Uncas secure in the English favor. His actual services, which were considerable, have been alluded to. His tribe were an out-guard for the settlements in Connecticut. After selling the town of Norwich, that place being first colonized in a period of general excitement and hostility among the tribes, the Mohegans kept out spies and runners to give the inhabitants intelligence of their enemies' movements, and were a continual defence against them. ”

“ Ever since the Pequot War, there had been trouble between the Mohegans and the Narragansetts. Uncas, the powerful sachem of the former tribe, was Miantonomo’s deadly rival. When, therefore, war broke out between him and an ally of Miantonomo, [Pg 109] the Narragansett sachem took part in the struggle. With a force of about a thousand men, which greatly outnumbered the Connecticut Indians, he took Uncas completely by surprise. Unhappily, Miantonomo was hindered by a heavy armor that had been loaned him and this, together with the sudden fury of Uncas’ assault, cost him the day. ”

“ The remuneration to Uncas for the part which he took in this war, was a portion of the Pequot territory, (which he afterwards sold to the English,) and one hundred captives of that tribe; and this, with the honor of having subdued his great Pequot rival, and the reputation of being upon the most flattering and favorable terms of intercourse with the English, made him at once a character of high dignity and of no little influence. Indians began to collect around him from neighboring tribes, and he could now muster four or five hundred warriors. ”

“ Sequassen, a sachem on the Connecticut river, killed a principal Indian of the Mohegan tribe; and waylaid Uncas himself; as he was going down the river, and shot several arrows at him. Uncas complained to the governor and court of the colony, who took great pains to settle the affair; but without success. He was finally induced to accept of one of Sequassen's Indians, to be given up as an equivalent for the murdered man; but Sequassen would not consent to submission or concession of any kind. He insisted upon fighting. Uncas accepted his challenge, and invaded his territory ”

“ Not till the Indians became trained in the use of fire-arms were they again matched against the whites on anything like equal terms. Among the Indian tribes, the result of the Pequot War was to elevate Uncas and his Mohegans into a position of rivals of Miantonomoh, and his Narragansetts, with the result of the overthrow and death of Miantonomoh. In the subsequent years war broke out several times, but by the intervention of the federal commissioners, who bolstered up Uncas, hostilities did not proceed. ”

“ The white settlers soon had trouble with them, and when the Pequot War, which was a war between the settlers and the Indians, began, in 1637, Uncas came with some of his Mohegan warriors and offered to guide the English troops through the woods to the Pequot fort. ”

“ About the 26th of July, fifty Mohegans belonging to Uncas, with three of his sons, whereof one was his eldest son and successor, named Oneko, came into Boston, all armed with guns, being conducted by two Englishmen and some of the praying Indians of Natick, where they lodged the night before ; they brought a letter from Mr. James Fitch, minister of Norwich, to our Governor and Council, signifying that their Sachem Uncas had sent them to assist the English against their enemy Philip ”

“ In 1659 he gave all his lands, with all his corn, to his old comrade and friend, Major John Mason, with whom he had stormed the Pequot fort on the Mystic. He lived to be a very old man, and a remnant of his tribe still exists today near Norwich, Connecticut, and are the only natives still lingering upon the soil of the state.
Sassacus defied the English and was exterminated. Uncas befriended them and lived a peaceful existence. Of the two, he led the more quiet life, but one cannot but admire the fierce, fighting spirit of Sassacus and regret that he met such a miserable end. ”

“ The enemy soon ascertained that Uncas was relieved, and raised the siege. The Sachem is said to have rewarded Lefingwell for his services by a deed of the town of Norwich. [FN]
[FN] Trumbull.
And not open and honorable arms, (as civilized foes would consider them,) alone, were employed against Uncas. One of the Pequots, in 1643, shot him through the arm, at the instigation, as was generally supposed, of Miantonomo; and the war with that chieftain was brought on by similar attempts on the part of Sequassen. ”